Hamiltons deny assault claims

Former Tory Minister Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine were arrested yesterday over allegations of rape.

The couple went voluntarily to a London police station and were questioned for five hours in the presence of a solicitor.

The investigation centres on a woman who says she was attacked in East London after meeting two men and a woman through an Internet chatroom.

The group fixed a rendezvous, she alleged, then went to two separate addresses in the East End where 'violent' sexual encounters took place.

After leaving the police station yesterday, the Hamiltons issued a vehement denial of the claims. 'It is an absolutely monstrous fabrication,' said Mrs Hamilton, 51.

The couple had driven to Barkingside police station, East London, from Lord Longford's funeral at Westminster Cathedral, which they attended earlier in the day.

Both dressed in navy blue, they sat among 500 mourners just yards from Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and former Tory Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington. After the service, Mrs Hamilton was visibly distressed and was photographed sobbing.

The allegations are the latest twist in an extraordinary seven-year period which has propelled Mr Hamilton from the ranks of a faceless junior minister to political infamy.

He was forced to resign his job as Corporate Affairs Minister in 1994 after accusations that he took cash for asking questions in Parliament.

He later lost his parliamentary seat and launched into a long libel battle with Harrods owner Mohammed Al-Fayed.

Throughout his colourful career he has been backed by the fiercely loyal, Christine, whom he married at the age of 19. The couple have no children.

A police source said the woman claimed the couple she met matched the Hamiltons' description. She said she was introduced to them by a 'former employee' of the pair. He is also thought to have been interviewed by officers.

'The allegations have to be put to them,' said the source. 'If they can prove where they were on the day this happened then that will be the end of the matter.'

The alleged victim, thought to be 28 and a mother-of-two, is under-stood to have contacted publicity guru Max Clifford several weeks ago.

Last night it also emerged that the couple had been followed to the police station by BBC film-maker Louis Theroux, who is currently making a documentary about the Hamiltons.

The couple emerged after five hours, clearly tired and still wearing the clothes they had attended the funeral in.

They posed for photographers as their solicitor Michael Coleman read a statement.

He said: 'The accusation was that they took part in a rape and an indecent assault in Ilford on Saturday May 5. The details are quite horrific.

'The allegation has been denied absolutely by Mr and Mrs Hamilton.

'They have cooperated fully and have supplied police with information as to their whereabouts that evening.

'They have also given the police details of all their private affairs, telephone numbers, their credit card records, in order that the police can thoroughly investigate these allegations.'

'As the name Max Clifford was mentioned, this is the man that brought us "Freddie Star Ate My Hamster". There is absolutely no truth in it.'

When Mrs Hamilton was asked to comment, she moved next to her husband, put her arm around him and said: 'I'm very pleased to stand next to my husband. The whole thing is absolute nonsense'

Mr Coleman led the Hamiltons to a waiting jeep with the number plate 1LAW and the three drove away.

Mr Hamilton entered Parliament in 1983 as MP for Tatton in Cheshire. In 1992 he was appointed Corporate Affairs Minister by John Major.

But just two years later he was forced to resign his office after it was alleged that he took money for asking Parliamentary questions.

With the sleaze claims hanging over him, he began to embody the problems dogging the final days of the Major administration. In 1997 he defended his Tatton seat against former BBC war reporter, Martin Bell, who stood as an independent on an anti-sleaze ticket.

Both the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates stood aside and Mr Bell won the seat.

But, far from disappearing into obscurity, Mr Hamilton and his wife have remained in the public eye and are frequent guests on television.

Mrs Hamilton has presented her own show on a digital TV channel and is a regular contributor to radio.

Both have become authors and had books published.

In 1999, Mr Hamilton brought a libel claim against Mr Al-Fayed over claims by the tycoon in a 1997 Channel 4 documentary that the former MP had demanded and received thousands of pounds in cash. In a five-week case which became known as Liar versus Liar, he lost.

Last December he appealed against the verdict but lost again and faced bankruptcy after being landed with costs totalling £3million.

In March, the House of Lords ruled that he could not appeal again but Mr Hamilton has talked of taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Last week it was revealed that the couple's £1.25million mansion in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, remains on the market after being put up for sale three months ago.